EU lawmakers' ICO regulation idea that could actually OPEN the doors for ICO's in Europe...

It's a fairly simple idea. Currently, an ICO faces different rules in each of the 28 nations in the European Union.

European Parliament member Ashley Fox is proposing a process an ICO could go though to verify their legitimacy, once passed they receive an 'ICO passport' that allows them to raise funds from all of those 28 countries.

“What I’m aiming to do is bring transparency to ICO’s, by allowing intermediaries to perform the required due diligence. And the effect of this will be to provide an EU-wide law which will give a passport to the whole market. ICO’s can carry on, but if they don’t fill the [criteria], they won’t benefit. (This new law) will give them a passport to the whole of the EU market, and I also think it increases transparency. Right now you have 28 countries, some have national rules for raising money and some don’t have any rules at all. If you raise money in France, for example, you can only use that money in France.” says Fox.

If it all pans out smoothly, it could be a huge boost to startups taking the ICO route for funding.

But what could go wrong? Well, it would take all 28 nations to agree on the proposal and be willing to honor the 'ICO passports' or the idea is dead in the water, and the specifics of what an ICO would need to do to receive one isn't clearly laid our yet.

However it's important to note no one is proposing that ICO's without this 'passport' cannot fundraise in the EU. ICO's without it will simply conduct business the same way they have been for the last few years - on a country by country basis.